Fruits of Capparis spinosa contain a significant amount of compounds with many health benefits. Three new alkaloids, capparisine A (1), capparisine B (2), capparisine C (3), and two known alkaloids, 2-(5-hydroxymethyl-2-formylpyrrol-1-yl) propionic acid lactone (4), and N-(3'-maleimidyl)-5-hydroxymethyl-2-pyrrole formaldehyde (5) were isolated from the fruits of C spinosa L. The five compounds were purified by solvent separation, column chromatography, and preparative HPLC, consecutively. The chemical structures of compounds 1-5 were established on the basis of a spectroscopic analysis, and the stereochemistries of compounds 1 and 2 were proved by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Nevertheless, the five compounds had no inhibitory effect on the human hepatocyte cell line HL-7702 apoptosis induced by Act D (200 ng/ml) and TNF-alpha (20 ng/ml) with high content screening assay. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.